Fire tears through Downtown St. Johnsbury

Five departments across the Northeast Kingdom responded to a fire at 438 Railroad St. Sunday afternoon.

“My dad called me and said 'Did you hear about the big fire on Railroad Street?'” said Brian Starkweather, who lives nearby. “I said, ‘Well that explains why I heard all the fire trucks and all the police cars,’ and I said 'Something big must have happened.’”

“A lot of people on Facebook had posted it and i just decided to come down and see what was going on,” said Mustapha Kay.

Downtown was closed as fire crews did what they could to save the building. Officials said the building next door, 430 Railroad St., also sustained heavy damage.

The Red Cross says it has helped at least 14 people in ten apartments. They said the fire impacted at least eight units.

“It's kind of weird,” Kay said. “It's kind of shocking that this would happen actually.”

“This was one of the only wooden buildings left downtown,” Starkweather said. “People don't realize they will go up in flames so quickly.”

Investigators have yet to announce a cause of the fire or if any one was hurt.

The Red Cross said it had set up a temporary shelter at the Welcome Center in St. Johnsbury just down the road from the fire.

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